Of Bangalore, BJP and gooey garbage

This is not a post. This is a postcard from the edge (of a garbage bin). Here’s a glimpse of New Garbaged Bangalore. The road that starts with Select Bookshop, cuts through Brigade Rd, squeezes past the pubs Guzzlers and Pecos, turns left near a garbage dump, and then heads to the infamous “ganja park”, has a lot to tweet about the city.

From Brigade’s the roadlet calls itself variously: Rest House Rd to Rest House Crescent to Brigade Rd Cross to Pubbers Cross. You might like to add another nickname, Stinking Stretch. Of course, Stinking Stretch has become stinkier after Bangalore’s civic administration decided to throw their hands and legs in the air when they were confronted with mountainous garbage. For more than 15 days, the city of flowers has been overpowered by stink. The ruling BJP administration did its best: it changed the civic commissioner.

Here’s how the Gen Y, Gen X and Gen eX react to the muck on Stinking Stretch. Says Gautam, a regular pubber: “These guys (the BJP) talk of managing the economy. They can’t manage garbage.”

Says a busy homemaker, who did not wish to be identified: “I don’t want to give my name for a comment on stink and waste. I am avoiding this road because of garbage and stray dogs.”

Says an elderly John, who was willing to lecture on waste management but finally agreed to give a soundbite: “They should pour sandalwood oil in the city. Why not? I haven’t come across a single reasonable solution.”

If you look at The Times of India’s Thursday edition, you’ll see pictures of garbage all across the city, from Hebbal to Koramangala. So far the city’s coproration has dumped garbage at landfills in outlying villages without worrying about the health of villagers. Villagers have complained about ground-water pollution, ill-health, stink, stray-dog attacks. It’s sad the corporation has no clue how to manage waste segregation, recycling and disposal in a growing city. It decided to dump pollutants in villages.

It’s okay if villages suffer, the mayor D Venkatesh Murthy said on August 26 when replying to a question by the media. You may call this civic ignorance or political uppityness. If that’s the way the mayor defines a village, as a dumping bin, then we would be left with a clean India and a stinking Bharat. John wonders whether commonsense has been segregated from politics.Businessman Sajjan Raj Mehta, a feisty Bangalorean, told TOI’s reporters on Wednesday: “We need a permanent solution for the garbage menace. It affects our business, especially when it rains, as the dirt gets mixed with rain water and blocks drains.” Obviously, business is not the immediate concern of the BJP and its mayor.

There’s another side to the argument as well. It’s been repeated often that Bangaloreans must heal themselves. The city has an elite workforce that has distinguished itself worldwide by writing cutting-edge code; it has raised quality-of-life standards; and it has adopted a futuristic outlook. It’s sad that this futuristic city has no (effective) solutions for garbage management. Except bombarding villages with waste.

Of course, individuals and families must play a part in garbage management. They must minimise waste and segregate it before it is carted away. Gated communities should recycle liquid waste. But these are pocket-size solutions. Bangalore ain’t a city of one lakh people; it’s soon going to be a city of one crore people. And a city of this size needs industrial solutions to deal with the scale and size of its waste.

So, here are three questions for the chief minister and his mayor:

2. Do you have a deep understanding of the scale of the problem and the long-term investments that go with it?

3. Will you say, “Sorry Bangaloreans, we were ill-prepared. We need to learn more about garbage management.”

Bangaloreans spread across the world can help the helpless civic administration. Of course, there are enough solutions to make Bangalore spick and span. If all of us, chiefly the global urban dwellers, can suggest an idea or two, maybe we won’t hear comments like John’s: “Pour sandalwood oil in the city.”

Let’s do this for Bangalore, the city that needs global insights to get rid of stink. Let’s post a mountain of ideas to make Bangalore cleaner and grander. Let’s give the mayor scalable arithmetic.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Author

Vinay Kamat believes in the spirit of Bangalore, its diversity, its energy, its noise, its pubs, its pollen. And, yes, its weather. Bangalore, he feels, makes people write since the city has a lot to say about itself. The name Rib Stick was suggested by a pubber who says Suave Bangalore must raise its voice to be heard.

Vinay Kamat believes in the spirit of Bangalore, its diversity, its energy, its noise, its pubs, its pollen. And, yes, its weather. Bangalore, he feels, mak. . .